Tools

by
Jason I. Hong
- In MobiSYS ’04: Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on mobile systems, applications, and services, 2004

"... Privacy is the most often-cited criticism of ubiquitous computing, and may be the greatest barrier to its long-term success. However, developers currently have little support in designing software architectures and in creating interactions that are effective in helping end-users manage their privacy ..."

Privacy is the most often-cited criticism of ubiquitous computing, and may be the greatest barrier to its long-term success. However, developers currently have little support in designing software architectures and in creating interactions that are effective in helping end-users manage their privacy. To address this problem, we present Confab, a toolkit for facilitating the development of privacy-sensitive ubiquitous computing applications. The requirements for Confab were gathered through an analysis of privacy needs for both end-users and application developers. Confab provides basic support for building ubiquitous computing applications, providing a framework as well as several customizable privacy mechanisms. Confab also comes with extensions for managing location privacy. Combined, these features allow application developers and end-users to support a spectrum of trust levels and privacy needs.

...er having to take any special action and without the end-user having tosconfigure anything.sPlausible deniability is also a useful aspect of many instant messaging systems,sas observed by Nardi et al =-=[108]-=-. They noted that people could ignore incomingsinstant messages without offending the sender, because the sender does not know forscertain whether the intended recipient is there or not. Consequently,...

"... We present a study of anonymized data capturing a month of high-level communication activities within the whole of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging system. We examine characteristics and patterns that emerge from the collective dynamics of large numbers of people, rather than the actions an ..."

We present a study of anonymized data capturing a month of high-level communication activities within the whole of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging system. We examine characteristics and patterns that emerge from the collective dynamics of large numbers of people, rather than the actions and characteristics of individuals. The dataset contains summary properties of 30 billion conversations among 240 million people. From the data, we construct a communication graph with 180 million nodes and 1.3 billion undirected edges, creating the largest social network constructed and analyzed to date. We report on multiple aspects of the dataset and synthesized graph. We find that the graph is well-connected and robust to node removal. We investigate on a planetary-scale the oft-cited report that people are separated by “six degrees of separation” and find that the average path length among Messenger users is 6.6. We also find that people tend to communicate more with each other when they have similar age, language, and location, and that cross-gender conversations are both more frequent and of longer duration than conversations with the same gender.

.... As conversations and messages exchanged within them are usually very short, it has been observed that users employ informal language, loose grammar, numerous abbreviations, with minimal punctuation =-=[10]-=-. Contact lists are commonly referred to as buddy lists and users on the lists are referred to as buddies. 2.1 Research on Instant Messaging Several studies on smaller datasets are related to this wor...

"... Instant Messaging (IM) is being widely adopted by teenagers. In a study of 16 teenage IM users, we explore IM as an emerging feature of teen life, focusing our questions on its support of interpersonal communication and its role and salience in everyday life. We qualitatively describe the teens&apos ..."

Instant Messaging (IM) is being widely adopted by teenagers. In a study of 16 teenage IM users, we explore IM as an emerging feature of teen life, focusing our questions on its support of interpersonal communication and its role and salience in everyday life. We qualitatively describe the teens&apos; IM use interpersonally, as well as its place in the domestic ecology. We also identify technology adoption conditions and discuss behaviors around privacy management. In this initial investigation, we found differences in the nature of use between high school and college teens, differences we propose are accounted for by teens&apos; degree of autonomy as a function of domestic and scholastic obligations, the development of independent work practices, Internet connectivity access, and even transportation access. Moreover, while teen IM use is in part characterized as an optimizing choice between multiple communications media, practice is also tied to concerns around peer pressure, peer group membership and creating additional opportunities to socialize.

"... Current perceptions of Instant Messaging (IM) use are based primarily on self-report studies. We logged thousands of (mostly) workplace IM conversations and evaluated their conversational characteristics and functions. Contrary to prior research, we found that the primary use of workplace IM was for ..."

Current perceptions of Instant Messaging (IM) use are based primarily on self-report studies. We logged thousands of (mostly) workplace IM conversations and evaluated their conversational characteristics and functions. Contrary to prior research, we found that the primary use of workplace IM was for complex work discussions. Only 28% of conversations were simple, single-purpose interactions and only 31% were about scheduling or coordination. Moreover, people rarely switched from IM to another medium when the conversation got complex. We found evidence of two distinct styles of use. Heavy IM users and frequent IM partners mainly used it to work together: to discuss a broad range of topics via many fast-paced interactions per day, each with many short turns and much threading and multitasking. Light users and infrequent pairs mainly used IM to coordinate: for scheduling, via fewer conversations per day that were shorter, slower-paced with less threading and multitasking.

"... Abstract. To participate in meaningful privacy practice in the context of technical systems, people require opportunities to understand the extent of the systems ’ alignment with relevant practice and to conduct discernible social action through intuitive or sensible engagement with the system. It i ..."

Abstract. To participate in meaningful privacy practice in the context of technical systems, people require opportunities to understand the extent of the systems ’ alignment with relevant practice and to conduct discernible social action through intuitive or sensible engagement with the system. It is a significant challenge to design for such understanding and action through the feedback and control mechanisms of today’s devices. To help designers meet this challenge, we describe five pitfalls to beware when designing interactive systems—on or off the desktop—with personal privacy implications. These pitfalls are: obscuring potential information flow, obscuring actual information flow, emphasizing configuration over action, lacking coarse-grained control, and inhibiting existing practice. They are based on a review of the

"... A significant problem with telephone communication is that callers do not have enough awareness about the Personal Presence of people they want to call. The result can be unwanted, interrupting calls. The live addressbook is an application that helps users make more informed telephone calls and tele ..."

A significant problem with telephone communication is that callers do not have enough awareness about the Personal Presence of people they want to call. The result can be unwanted, interrupting calls. The live addressbook is an application that helps users make more informed telephone calls and teleconferences, from anywhere, via their wireless PDA or desktop browser. Unlike other network-based address books, which maintain static information, the live addressbook can display dynamic information about where the recipient currently is (i.e., reach number), and how available he/she currently is for calls. The system accomplishes this by applying to telephony the “Buddy List ” concepts made popular in Instant Messaging applications. User trials assess the applicability of Personal Presence information in a telephone context.

...ace the telephone call, relying upon its Location information. This is a particularly interesting example of the “outeraction” reported by Nardi, Whittaker, and Bradner elsewhere in these proceedings =-=[15]-=-. Here, users had an alternative means of checking Presence that is, seemingly, easier than IM. Apparently, members of this workgroup considered the task of responding to the “probe” IM to have low ov...

"... There have been many attempts to support awareness and lightweight interactions using video and audio, but few have been built on widely available infrastructure. Text-based systems have become more popular, but few support awareness, opportunistic conversations, and mobility, three important elemen ..."

There have been many attempts to support awareness and lightweight interactions using video and audio, but few have been built on widely available infrastructure. Text-based systems have become more popular, but few support awareness, opportunistic conversations, and mobility, three important elements of helping distributed groups coordinate. We built on the popularity of text-based Instant Messengers (IM) by building a mobile IM called Hubbub that tries to provide all three, notably through the use of musical sounds. In a 5.5-month use study, we found that Hubbub helped people feel connected to others in different locations and supported opportunistic interactions. Sound was a useful cue for helping people feel connected, although some found it annoying. It was more important to support graceful transitions between multiple fixed locations than to support wireless access, although both were useful.

"... Mobile interaction can potentially be enhanced with well-designed haptic control and display. However, advances have been limited by a vicious cycle whereby inadequate haptic technology obstructs inception of vitalizing applications. We present the first stages of a systematic design effort to break ..."

Mobile interaction can potentially be enhanced with well-designed haptic control and display. However, advances have been limited by a vicious cycle whereby inadequate haptic technology obstructs inception of vitalizing applications. We present the first stages of a systematic design effort to break that cycle, beginning with specific usage scenarios and a new handheld display platform based on lateral skin stretch. Results of a perceptual device characterization inform mappings between device capabilities and specific roles in mobile interaction, and the next step of hardware re-engineering. Author Keywords Mobile, haptic, tactile, handheld interaction, multimodal,

...d, amplitude, and wave shape) add information dimensions. Display of background status information and alerts (Figure 2d) Albert always feels in touch with his friends because they all share presence =-=[13]-=- and location information with each other via their mobiles, with status notifications as they become busy or free. Albert is composing a text message to a buddy. His fingers are busy entering text, b...

"... Although electronic communication plays an important role in the modern workplace, the interruptions created by poorly-timed attempts to communicate are disruptive. Prior work suggests that sharing an indication that a person is currently busy might help to prevent such interruptions, because people ..."

Although electronic communication plays an important role in the modern workplace, the interruptions created by poorly-timed attempts to communicate are disruptive. Prior work suggests that sharing an indication that a person is currently busy might help to prevent such interruptions, because people could wait for a person to become available before attempting to initiate communication. We present a context-aware communication client that uses the built-in microphones of laptop computers to sense nearby speech. Combining this speech detection sensor data with location, computer, and calendar information, our system models availability for communication, a concept that is distinct from the notion of presence found in widely-used systems. In a four week study of the system with 26 people, we examined the use of this additional context. To our knowledge, this is the first field study to quantitatively examine how people use automatically sensed context and availability information to make decisions about when and how to communicate with colleagues. Participants appear to have used the provided context to as an indication of presence, rather than considering availability. Our results raise the interesting question of whether sharing an indication that a person is currently unavailable will actually reduce inappropriate interruptions.

"... At a very early stage in the course of CSCW, it became evident that categories such as ‘conversation ’ or ‘workflow ’ were quite insufficient for characterizing and understanding the ways in which cooperative work is coordinated and integrated. It quickly became obvious that cooperating actors someh ..."

At a very early stage in the course of CSCW, it became evident that categories such as ‘conversation ’ or ‘workflow ’ were quite insufficient for characterizing and understanding the ways in which cooperative work is coordinated and integrated. It quickly became obvious that cooperating actors somehow, while doing their indi-vidual bits, take heed of the context of their joint effort. More specifically, the early harvest of ethnographic field studies in CSCW (e.g., Harper et al., 1989b; Harper et al., 1989a; Heath and Luff, 1991) indicated that cooperating actors align and integrate their activities with those of their colleagues in a seemingly ‘seamless’ manner, that is, without interrupting each other, for instance by asking, suggesting, requesting, ordering, reminding, etc. others of this or that. As a placeholder for these elusive practices of taking heed of what is going on in the setting which seem to play a key role in cooperative work, the term ‘awareness ’ was soon adopted. Not surprisingly then, the concept of ‘awareness ’ has come to play a central role in CSCW, and from the very beginning CSCW researchers have been exploring how computer-based technologies might facilitate some kind of ‘awareness ’ among

... even the use of instant messaging systems where an actor’s deliberately typing and sending a message that then interrupts the flow of activities of other actors is taken as instances of ‘awareness’ (=-=Nardi et al., 2000-=-). In short, it is becoming increasingly clear that the term ‘awareness’ does not denote a set of related practices. In fact, it is hardly a concept any longer. The very word ‘awareness’ is one of tho...